The Wondrous Machine: Simon Harden

It was the Irish poet, Nicholas Brady who coined the phrase “The Wondrous Machine” to describe the organ, and with over 4,000 pipes, 80 speaking stops spread over 4 manuals and pedals, the organ in St Patrick’s is no exception.

This autumn there will be plenty of opportunity to hear our wondrous machine for yourselves with a series of 5 recitals given by St Patrick’s Cathedral Organists and guests from across Ireland.

Admission is free, and programmes will be published in the not too distant future.

Simon Harden lectures in Organ performance at the TU Dublin Conservatoire and is Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Waterford.  Regular concert engagements take him throughout Europe and further afield.  He has performed solo recitals in such venues as Notre-Dame Paris, Westminster Abbey London, Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall and St Jacobi Hamburg.  Simon began his studies at Trinity College Dublin reading Music and History of Art. Further studies at the Music Academies in Berlin and Hamburg led to a first-class Postgraduate degree in performance followed by a ‘Premier Prix’ for his studies in Paris.  On receiving a scholarship from the City of Hamburg, he took the ‘Konzertexamen’ with distinction, the highest award for performance in Germany. Simon has won several prizes in international competitions including 1st prize and audience prize at the ‘International Schnitger Organ Competition’ in the Netherlands and 2nd prize at the ‘Grand Prix Bach de Lausanne’.  He was also awarded the DAAD prize for ‘outstanding performance and intercultural involvement’ whilst in Hamburg. In 2021, he founded the Waterford International Organ Festival and became its Artistic Director.